British cricketers bowled over by Everest game

Deepesh SHRESTHA

After completing a record-breaking charity cricket match close to Everest base camp, the exhausted players trekked out of the mountains with one piece of advice: don't run singles at high altitude.

The two teams - plus umpires, doctors and even a few spectators - climbed for nine days carrying their bats, pads and even a roll-up pitch to get to Gorak Shep, a sandy plateau 5,165 metres (17,000 feet) above sea level.

"It was difficult to bat and bowl at that height. There were not many singles. Batsmen hit lots of sixes and fours," Gareth Lewis, a 27-year-old British policeman, told AFP after returning to Kathmandu.

"I took just six or seven paces to bowl instead of a full run-up."

The two teams - named Hillary and Tenzing after the first men to climb Everest - set up stumps on April 21 for the match that lasted for nearly four hours.

Team Hillary made 152 for five in 20 overs and won the match by 36 runs after restricting Tenzing to 116 all out in 18.4 overs.

All the players, who were mostly from Britain, had trained hard to cope with the extreme conditions at the "ground," where the oxygen levels were only 66 percent of those at sea level.

"It was one of the most memorable experience of my life," Lewis, vice-captain of the Tenzing team, told AFP in Kathmandu before heading home on Tuesday.

"It is hard to believe that I have played in the world's highest match. It's a fantastic feeling."

Nick Toovey, 28, a recruitment consultant, said the match had been a great success despite finding himself on the losing side.

"A lot of people said that we won't be able to play for the full time and that we would collapse," he said. "It was tough at that altitude. I was breathing very heavily, but we proved them wrong."

"It was fairly surreal. There was Mount Everest next to you, and yaks on one side of the pitch. I was sad it was all over, I wished it had lasted a bit longer."

Jonathan Hill, a 28-year-old teacher and qualified cricket umpire, explained he had a unique excuse for any poor decisions.

"Concentrating was difficult because your brain works slower up there," he said. "Umpiring the world's highest match is a real privilege. It's a once in a lifetime achievement."

Match organiser Richard Kirtley dreamt up the idea during a trip to Mount Everest in 2006.

He said he thought Gorak Shep resembled The Oval cricket ground in south London, and resolved to organise a fixture.

The players hope to have raised 250,000 pounds (350,000 dollars) for The Lord's Taverners and The Himalayan Trust UK charities. They now plan to register the game with Guinness World Records.

KATHMANDU, AFP